Improvement in potato-mashers



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIoE.

ALANSON BROWN, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN POTATO-M-ASHE RS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 178,228, dated June 6, 1876; application filed November 8, 1875.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ALANSON BROWN, of the city of Rochester, in the county of Mon roe and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in P0- tato-Mashers; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a perspective view. Figs. 2 and 3 are modifications.

My improvement relates to potato-mashers made from wire. Such devices have before been known, but are expensive in construction, and are lacking in strength and firmness to resist the strain to which they are subjected.

My invention consists of a potato masher made from a single piece of wire, having longitudinal coils or bends, which are-crossed and braced by transverse lengths, as hereinafter more fully described.

In the construction. of this device I take a length of wire, say a yard, more or less, and double the central portion so as to form the several longitudinal bends or coils a a a, which form the bed ofthe masher. When these coils are formed I bend the ends of wire inward and cross them laterally under the longitudinal coils, as shown at b b, and bring them up on the opposite sides. 1 then turn them inward over the top of the coils and carry them to the center, as shown at c c. I then twist the ends together to form the shank d, which is inserted in the end of the handle A, which completes the operation.

The ends 0 0, instead of being carried close over the top of the coils clear to the center, may be made in the form of a bow or arch, Fig. 2, embracing the two outer coils only;

and the lengths b b, instead of crossing under the coils, may cross over them in a single length, as shown in Fig. 3. t

The object of this invention is to make a potato masher from a single piece of wire, thereby insuring great cheapness, and so arranged that proper stifi'ness and strength of the mashing-surface are obtained. To accomplish this I make the coils an in the center of the length of wire and cross them with the transverse lengths b I). These coils and crosslengths mutually brace and support each other, and prevent yielding and springing of the coils, which would occur if they alone were used. The effect is also to assist in the mashing operation, as they cut the material finer and more rapidly. By this means Ican make the masher from a single and unbroken length of wire, and no soldering or other attachment is required, but the whole work is done by simply bending and twisting the Wire and inserting it into the handle.

I am aware that potato mashers made of wire have before been known. Such I do not claim, broadly. But they have usually been made with a volute face, and stayed or strengthed by separate pieces, all united at the handle. Such devices are expensive in construction.

What I claim as anew article of manufacture is-- r The potato masher herein described, consistin g of the longitudinal coils a. a, transverse length or lengthsbb, and the twisted shank d, resting in the handle A, the whole being made from a single length of wire, as and for the purpose specified.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALANSON BROWN.

Witnesses R. F. Oscoon, E. B. Scorrr. 

